News

Fmr. Athens Co. Developmental Disabilities Supt. Dies

A funeral service is scheduled for Friday for Harry Sands, superintendent of the Athens County Board of Development Disabilities from 1972 to 1982.

Sands died Friday after an extended illness.

Sands was instrumental in building a new Beacon School, which opened in 1983 on West Union Street.

An obituary provided by his family says Sands also revived Special Olympics and established the Athens County Adult Workshop to help create vocational work for students past school age.

Plans are being made for a memorial fund and a memory garden at Beacon.

The Athens County Board of Developmental Disabilities is also expected to honor Sands with a resolution that recognizes, "his outstanding efforts towards individuals with developmental disabilities throughout his lifetime."

Sands was living in Cross Lanes, West Virginia, at the time of his death.